2024 didn’t live up to the heights of 2023, but it certainly produced bangers. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is most definitely in the “banger” category. While I can understand the titles superseding it in 2024, in some ways, Rebirth ended up being a “failure.”
I’ll preface by saying Final Fantasy 7 was one of my childhood games. I played it several times, adored the combat, and grew very attached to the characters. The remake trilogy is at the forefront of my wishes, so there’s an inherent bias between myself and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
However, this doesn’t mean I can’t be objective here, and I recognize why Astro Bot won Game of the Year (It was my pick too!) For all the effort and time that went into FF7 Rebirth though, the post-launch rewards didn’t justify the final product.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is The Perfect RPG
A 92 rating on Metacritic, a 99% Critics Recommend score on OpenCritic, and seven nominations at The Game Awards 2024 should feel like a big W for Could Strife and his crew. Yet, I’m sitting here, and it feels like no one is talking about an all-time JRPG great.
Rebirth has coherent storytelling with epic twists and turns, a deep and intuitive combat system, a gorgeous palette of extensive biomes, and Red XIII walking upright in a side-splittingly comical fashion spectacularly paying homage to the original.
Ultimately, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth may have collapsed under the weight of expectation. I would argue this installment is the most important of the three and covers one of the most talked-about segments in video game history. I’d say Rebirth handled it brilliantly and hits all the right notes: The Gold Saucer, Barret’s story in Mt. Corel, and the introduction of fate into the core narrative.
When it comes to Game of the Year and Best RPG of the Year, Rebirth feels like it’s been forgotten about in favor of another.
Rebirth or ReFantazio?
Metaphor: ReFantazio is published by Atlus—developers of the legendary Persona franchise—and their trademark influences are all over Metaphor. Atlus’ newest project received similar reviews and praise to Rebirth but is deemed a superior game in almost every way. Furthermore, it swiped three Game Awards—including “Best RPG” ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
I’ve invested over 100 hours in FF7 Rebirth and seen most of its content, and honestly believe Astro Bot is the only contender that pipped it as the year’s best content—each to their own of course. Shadow of the Erdtree is DLC, I won’t hear anything else; whereas Metaphor: ReFantazio is an exceptional JRPG, and its stylistic choices are down to personal choice, but many agree with its idiosyncrasies.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s lack of praise and love can’t be down to the perception of JRPGs, as Metaphor falls under this category too. No Metaphor: ReFantazio means more awards and praise for Rebirth. But it doesn’t change the fact Square Enix also perceives its own game as a disappointment in some ways. The company believes Rebirth did not meet sales expectations, and I’m hoping this doesn’t impact the third and final Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Was Rebirth released at the wrong time of year? Did the feel of a fresh IP in Metaphor: ReFantazio supersede a franchise where people know what they’re getting? I’ll be left twiddling my thumbs and asking these questions until part three hits the shelves. Big congratulations to Metaphor of course, but I’d keep a watchful eye out for a long silver-haired assailant with a long sword.
Did Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth deserve more recognition in 2024? Or was it simply bested by a better RPG and needed to do more to sell more copies? I’m keen to hear what you have to say.
No it doesn’t the game is trash the whole idea was dumb. Will you people finally realize you’re the “vocal minority”. If Square wanted money they’d double on Kingdom Hearts but instead they shafted that series for a garbage alteration of a previous game that flopped.
Just deal with it that trash flopped no one besides you people like it! Square Enix wonders why they lose money.
Wow some aggressive comments! To say the game is trash and no one else likes it is inaccurate by any metric. Some polls do rank it as RPG of the year, if not GOTY (Astrobot often getting the nod here). I largely share the author’s views and similarly grew up with the OG. While I love Rebirth for many reasons – and it rightly received praise – there were also those blurry performance mode visuals, plus criticisms regarding ‘bloat’ that together created some negative buzz (and combined with being a PS5 exclusive ; may have contributed to underwhelming sales). I would also posit that recency bias – and being a fresh IP – may well have worked in Metaphor’s favour (not withstanding that it’s also pretty damn good by most accounts). Time will tell how Rebirth is viewed – and sells – in the longer term, hopefully the PC port is a good one and does boost sales.. (fingers crossed the rumoured lighting improvements also make it back to PS5).
Game was trash and corpo shills in full effect